Battle for Michigan Depends on Small Slice of Voters

The battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum to win Michigan’s Republican presidential primary hasn’t produced a surge of voters at the polls Tuesday, at least not yet, election officials say.

In the Detroit suburb of Warren, Mich., City Clerk Paul Wojno said four years ago about 21% of the city’s roughly 97,000 registered voters cast ballots, and he expects turnout today could be about the same, though “more on the lighter side.” Mr. Wojno said his office has received about 6,800 absentee ballots, and he expects a third or more of the total votes could be absentees.

Skies over metro Detroit were sunny, with temperatures in the 40s, making weather unavailable as an excuse for low turnout.

In Ottawa County, in western Michigan, election coordinator Justin Roebuck said interest in the election appears to be stronger than officials anticipated. Mr. Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, drew large crowds last week during a visit to Holland, one of the larger cities in the county.

“We we estimating 25%, we will see upwards of that,” Mr. Roebuck said. “We have seen stronger interest. My guess would be 30% (turnout) county-wide.”

Grand Rapids City Clerk Lauri Parks said she expects 20% turnout by the end of the day. “It’s hard to say at midday how it will end up,” she said. “We will have another rush at 5 p.m.”

In Sterling Heights, Mich., in the heart of Macomb County’s “Reagan Democrat” country, city clerk Walter Blessed said voting as of early afternoon was slow and absentee voting was down. “We had 7,600 absentee ballots for the presidential primary,” Mr. Blessed said. “We had 9,000 for a local city council and mayor election this past November.”

Mr. Blessed said he has heard from people in the community that they had been put off from voting in the GOP primary because under state law anyone can get access to the identities of voters who ask for GOP primary ballots.

At polling places in Sterling Heights, Santorum supporters cited his conservative positions on social values issues. Romney backers said the economy was their top concern.

At the polling place in Christ Lutheran Church in Sterling Heights, Air Force retiree Joe French expressed support for Mr. Santorum. “I believe in a lot of his moral values,” said Mr. French. “I’m a man of faith myself and I believe we need a President that’s going to stand on the type of moral values that our President needs to stand for.”

Laura Ochenski, also from Sterling Heights, said she had been undecided.

“It was really hard to make a decision because I felt one candidate I kind of related to more on the spiritual side … and the other candidate has real good business sense,” she said.

In the end though she said she “went with her heart” and with Mr. Santorum.

Voting at the nearby American Polish Century Club, Sue Cain described herself as a Christian conservative but said Mr. Romney’s business experience was her deciding factor.

“I feel he would be the best for the economy. Things in Michigan have been pretty rough,” she said. “The social issues are important to me too, but I feel he’s conservative and the best one to turn the economy around.”

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